This week saw a new UK prime minister, Liz Truss, and a new monarch, King Charles III. Neither are unfamiliar figures but they arrive in profoundly unsettling times. The death of Queen Elizabeth II removes a rock upon which many private lives were tethered. This source of stability was not down to her as an individual but to what she has represented in different moments in British history. She had been there to say and do the right thing at the right time. The Queen was part of the living memory of several generations. Her meaning came from what she embodied to people.
Her inscrutability and dedication to duty will see her remembered as one of Britain’s greatest monarchs. Her Majesty kept her own counsel. King Charles III is a very different proposition. The public knows a lot about his views, his interests and what he thinks is important. He has both reactionary and reforming opinions. His infamous “black spider” letters revealed the then heir apparent to be lobbying MPs, ministers and even the prime minister. His speech, just a day after his mother’s death, is a departure in itself. When George VI died suddenly in 1952, the young Elizabeth was in Kenya and returned saying nothing – starting her reign as she meant to continue.
